With mosquito numbers very low this year, the City of Steinbach has already stopped conducting mosquito trap counts.

That according to Russ Dyck the head of Steinbach Parks and Recreation. Trap counts in August 2016 ranged from 123 to 182 and Dyck notes this year numbers were significantly lower.

"The weekly numbers were very low specifically in the last month or two generally not reaching double digits, so it has been a good year in terms of mosquitoes being absent from our environment. That was across the board in Manitoba where the numbers were lower but specifically in Steinbach and the Southeast they were low."

Dyck says in addition to mosquito counts being down, they have not seen any West Nile positive pools of mosquitoes in Steinbach this summer.

Dr. Robert Anderson is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Winnipeg. He says the low mosquito populations won’t necessarily affect numbers next year.

"There is very little relationship between the number of mosquitoes one year and the number of mosquitoes the next year. Populations are generally driven by weather conditions so that means temperature and rainfall tend to set up the conditions for lots of mosquitoes or few of them."

Dr. Anderson notes many mosquito eggs that did not hatch this year will carry over into next summer.